How well can you determine fish taste?

Post by **steve-hamilton** » Mon May 30, 2005 10:02 am

I have a good friend of mine, basically the person who got me into keeping a few fish for the table...before i started fishing with this person, i never, ever, EVER, kept anything...over for dinner last night.

Anyways, i've argued cooked in teh same medium, most fish will taste the same, if not exact.

Well, i decided to put my thoughts to test. We had a bunch of perch (fresh, unfrozen) we were cooking up...I had some FROZEN pike fillets.

I cut them into the exact same small 'P' perch fillets (ever notice a perch fillet looks like the letter P?).

Anyways, i mixed a few pike fillets in with the perch, and gave them to my buddy....As he devoured the plate (had to remind him to breathe), i asked him how it was....

EXCELLENT was the answer. Asked if anything tasted out of the ordinary...he said 'nope', great old perch.

He's been an avid catch and eat angler for well over 20 years, and has tons of fish eaten under his belt. if anyone was going to notice the difference, it should have been him.

And he didnt.

Now i preface this with, its basically the batter that blends all tastes in. If i was preparing them without batter, OBVIOUSLY the taste difference would have been apparent.

I'm not sure if this is really a question, or just an observation. Has anyone else noticed they can't/or its VERY tough to tell the difference between fish, prepared in the same batter?

Post by **crash** » Mon May 30, 2005 10:13 am

I have never thought of the taste difference that way.
Good one to check out.

Post by **BBRich** » Mon May 30, 2005 10:35 am

I can tell the difference between pike and perch.. and I'll prove it to you.

Please come over with a plate of pike, and a plate of perch and I'm sure I can show you there is a difference

Post by **saskie** » Mon May 30, 2005 10:55 am

In my experience, pike, walleye and perch all caught from the same water will taste almost identical. When I notice the difference is later on in the dog days of summer and then there is a noticeable difference in taste between that pike/perch pulled from a luke-warm mud-bottomed weed flat and the walleye you caught off a rocky point in 30ft.

Post by **big-o** » Mon May 30, 2005 11:15 am

At westmeath, Topwater and I cooked up Walleye, Perch , Crappie and Blue gill.....I honestly could not taste the differance, it was all deep fried in hot oil with a beer batter, but when we did the last batch up and had run out of batter, you could tell the differance in the taste from the walleye,and crappie but I think you would be hard pressed to tell the pannies apart

Post by **Wallyboss** » Mon May 30, 2005 12:13 pm

I tried it 2 weekends ago I prepared walleye and pike in foil with butter
some lemon pepper . wrapped up everything and threw it on the BBQ.
I could definitely taste the difference.plus the pike still had some bones in it. I'm still trying to fillet pike and get rid of those darn y-bones but I did not bad being it was only the 3 or 4th pike i've ever filleted. the taste of the pike has more of the fishy taste than the walleye.and i'm not to crazy about the pike taste but in fish crisp I or nobody else could tell the difference. i only had the italian flavor and the cajun one u might be able to tell them apart with the regular one but it might be hard

Post by **Scum Frog** » Mon May 30, 2005 12:24 pm

A lot of people dis pike because of the bones. If you can learn how to filet them properly a lot more people would keep them as they taste great.

Post by **steve-hamilton** » Mon May 30, 2005 12:34 pm

well, the fish was filleted by our own DWC67, and there wasn't a single bone in the fillet.

but remember, i cut them into little perch size pieces, so there definately wasn't any bones....

I couldn't tell the difference either...but i've just started my fresh water fish pallet.

Post by **Trophymuskie** » Mon May 30, 2005 1:05 pm

It all taste like crap.

Never liked fish, that's why I always was after good fighting fish and was easily taken over by muskie fishing.

I must admit I do eat fish and chips once in a blue moon, with enough ketchup to bury any fish taste.

Post by **TroutSlayer** » Mon May 30, 2005 2:11 pm

In my opinion, everything covered in batter, spices and submerged in hot grease tastes the same! It could even be squirrel, pike or roadkill! Now some fish have a very delicate flavour and some are just plain fish stinky. If you want to taste the fish, broil it plain and add salt and pepper after it's cooked. At that point you will really notice a difference in taste of varied species, or for that matter, the same species from different waters. You will also live longer without the grease and trans fats.

Post by **Rider23** » Mon May 30, 2005 2:35 pm

big-o wrote:At westmeath, Topwater and I cooked up Walleye, Perch , Crappie and Blue gill.....I honestly could not taste the differance, it was all deep fried in hot oil with a beer batter, but when we did the last batch up and had run out of batter, you could tell the differance in the taste from the walleye,and crappie but I think you would be hard pressed to tell the pannies apart

When you mix 24 parts beer to 1 part batter none of us could tell the difference

but it sure was fun trying

Post by **Wallyboss** » Mon May 30, 2005 2:46 pm

Actually filleting pike doesn't look that hard i saw a video of how to do it,and tried it it sure looks like the bigger the pike the easier the filleting. I had my best time trial 2 weeks ago for walleye filleting.

getting 12 fish out of the live cage + filleting and ready to eat =15 min.

but 2 pikes and some bones left 15 min.

Post by **Legend** » Mon May 30, 2005 4:39 pm

Ok, I couldn't tell the taste difference between Big-O's Crappie and the batch of Mr. Walter he brought along.

Of course, booze, temperature, weather, beer batter, and Big-O's marmalade / horseradish ensemble was probably the reason I couldn't tell the difference.

The fish was delicious though!

p.s. Keep the trans-fats, they add that je ne sais quoi!

Legend

Post by **TroutSlayer** » Mon May 30, 2005 4:42 pm

LMAO

Post by **Wall-I-Guy** » Mon May 30, 2005 4:49 pm

I really think it depends on how it's cooked. I've had them at the same time, Pike, Perch, Wally, and Bass and couldn't tell the difference at times. Usually I can though if it's cooked individually.

When it's deep fried all in the same pot, as in Big-O's case at Westmeath, it didn't matter, it all tasted super

Thanks again Big-O

Fish-Hawk.Net

How well can you determine fish taste?

How well can you determine fish taste?

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